2016/08 Newf'land trip - Cheeseman |
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Sunday August 21st
It was a cloudy morning and dark under the trees so we made a late start. But we had all day to cover the 100 miles or so to Port aux 
Basques, so we could afford to be a bit lazy and do some exploring along the way.
We took a side trip into the Codroy Valley and down to the southwest coast. We followed it around to the Cape Anguille lighthouse. One of the keepers’ cottages there is now a hotel. In Codroy we passed Chap’s museum of automobile nostalgia.
We ate lunch at Codroy Valley provincial park, a short stretch of beach accessed by this interesting bridge. I’d been looking for the Grand Codroy park we’d camped in back in’89 but it looks like it’s now a park reserve with no camping.
We tried to follow the coast further south and our GPS thought we could, but we ended up at the beach staring across the water at the distant shore. Maybe we could do it in the winter months or if we fitted a 20 foot snorkel. Along this road was a typical Newfie graveyard, a flat spot out of town. Churches have to be built on rock but graveyards need to be somewhere you can dig a hole. This particular graveyard has a spectacular view of the Long Range Mountains.
Back on the main road we found our way to Cheeseman provincial park. This was a perfect spot, just a few miles from the ferry terminal. 
Back in 1989 we drove into Cheeseman via a back road and over a wooden bridge only to find that we’d driven six tons of truck and trailer over a bridge with a one ton limit. There was no warning sign on the side we’d crossed from.
27 years on, they have a new metal bridge but we knew better than to ask what happened to the old one just in case they’re still looking for us!
We set up camp, walked over the new bridge, and set off to hike to the beach. There’s a new trail and it looked to be taking us on an 
easy walk over the dunes. However, this is Newfoundland and the “dunes” turned out to be rocky crags and the trail felt obliged to climb every one.
We had a distant view of the Cape Rae lighthouse and I hoped we weren’t going all the way there as I was still hurting 
from yesterday’s climb. The trail came out on the beach as we’d hoped and we walked slowly back to the campsite along the road.
There were cormorants in the river mouth and a group of yellowlegs. Along the road we met a couple from Chilliwack, travel nuts like us. The husband had ridden his motorcycle from Alaska to Patagonia, except for the boat trip around the Darien Gap.
There were these weird trees on the edge of the river. I was going to take a closer look to see what they were, but forgot. I’ll have to go back.
The campground had Wi-Fi at the chairs outside the ranger station but I had to wait for dark to be able to see the screen. We’d be arriving the following evening in Nova Scotia and were hoping to camp in Cape Breton national park. It looked like there were few available campsites so we booked one at Broad Cove at vast expense. The reservation fee alone was more than we’d been paying for campsites in Newfoundland.
Monday August 22nd
We awoke to a still day with dense, wet fog, not unusual for this corner of the island, where the gulf stream collides with Arctic air. This was good news for Sandie as long as the ferry didn’t get lost.
As it was, we got lost, meandering around the streets of Port aux Basques trying to find the ferry. We could see the boat but had missed the bridge that would get us to the dock. We were checked for potatoes just like in ’89 but they didn’t bother washing off the underside of the truck this time. Newfoundland’s soil harbours some unique nematodes that affect the productivity of potato plants, and the Canadian government doesn’t welcome them to other provinces.
We boarded the Blue Puttees, an odd name for a ferry, but they are all named after Canadian regiments. And the cavalry regiment was named after its blue socks, so it all makes sense to somebody. The ferry was quite comfortable and the restaurant menu was limited but fair value.
The fog cleared after a couple of hours and we were on the open sea and on our way to Nova Scotia.
The third part of this journal will cover our return trip to Minnesota and then to BC.